Rome, 22 July 2011: An international emergency meeting will be held in Rome on Monday, 25 July 2011, to examine measures to address the crisis in the Horn of Africa and to mobilize international support for affected countries. 

The meeting, organized by FAO at the request of the French Presidency of the Group of 20, is expected to be attended by Ministers and senior representatives from FAO’s 191 member countries, other UN bodies, inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and regional development banks. 

The meeting will start at 09.30 at FAO Headquarters, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Rome, Building A, Red Room. The conference is open to the media.

A press conference will follow at approximately 12.30h (Building B, Iran Room).

Participants will be:

• Bruno Le Maire, French Minister for Agriculture, Food, Fishery, Rural Affairs and Land Use Planning (for the French Presidency of the G20)
• A high-level representative from the Horn of Africa
• Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General
• Valerie Amos, UN Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator
• Kanayo F. Nwanze, IFAD President
• Josette Sheeran, WFP Executive Director
• Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive Director Oxfam UK

The meeting and the press conference will be webcast

Conference website:
http://www.fao.org/crisis/hornofafrica2011/en/

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Media Alert No.: IFAD/10/2011

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested over US$12.9 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering more than 370 million people to break out of poverty. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the United Nation’s food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 166 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).